5 ways companies are staying current

While researching for my previous post, I came across an article by Woody Lewis on Mashable.com about how traditional media companies are using online video to branch out. Lewis shows us 5 ways that these companies are using new media to help grow and maintain their current status. 1. Adapting to new consumers • Consumer Reports started out as a print publication in the 1930s. During the next quarter century, it became a trade media icon, often changing the marketing campaigns of products by issuing positive or negative reviews. Its web site, ConsumerReports.org, extended this influence online. While its business has not been immune to current economic conditions, Consumer Reports has used online video to improve its offering, and its public image. 2. Private Label News Networks • In the same way, Forbes Magazine has extended its reach with its Forbes Video Network, a branded page that also automatically rolls video upon loading. The viewer sees a 15-second pre-roll ad, followed by an announcer reading news summaries in between interviews and commentary. Additional shorter ads, embedded between promo footage showing features such as the network’s program guide, drive a fast-paced presentation very similar to a network or cable news show. This is a case of one traditional medium (print) emulating another traditional medium (television) to extend its reach into the new medium of online content. Forbes, traditionally a staid business publication, has clearly targeted a younger audience with this new video format. 3. A literary video channel • Book publisher HarperCollins has created an online video channel that features short pieces by authors promoting new releases. These clips have also been produced to emulate the TV format. Jump cuts to static images of book covers are interspersed in the footage, along with zooms, pans and other devices that create a Ken Burns-style effect of movement. To the right of the main window, a scrolling selection panel, tabbed by genre, offers a program guide. • Browsing through these items uncovers snippets of documentary-style footage and an embedded “Start Reading Now” link that maps to a beta “Browse Inside” portal, where the viewer can read the book online, and order the print or E-book version. One clip promoting the fiction title What Happens in London, features a dramatized summary of characters, delivered by a curly-tressed woman in Victorian-era clothing. This segues immediately into the next clip, a trailer for Jailbait Zombie featuring the author appearing in the trunk of a car to hawk his work. • By dressing books up as movies, and offering trailers that market these titles in familiar soundbite fashion, HarperCollins hopes to pull in a younger film-oriented audience, an effort that could be critical to its survival. 4. The Video Wire Service • The Associated Press has made online video a strategic initiative, offering its news product in this format to many businesses, including local television stations in need of more content to monetize their web sites. Bill Burke, global director of online video products, points to AP’s coverage of the recent presidential inauguration as an indicator of future efforts. He cites interactivity features such as allowing the audience to choose from different camera angles, as a competitive advantage for AP. 5. Standardizing Ad Formats • Starcom MediaVest, part of French ad giant Publicis Groupe, has become a key member of the Pool, a joint initiative between online advertisers and web publishers to create a standard format for video ads. With supporters like Microsoft, Yahoo!, Hulu, CBS Interactive, and other major digital media companies, as well as advertisers including Allstate, Capital One, and Applebee’s, the Pool represents an organized approach to an elusive problem. • Currently, viewers of online video don’t know what to expect when a clip starts to roll. They might see ads of varying lengths, and links that lead in some cases to unrelated sites. By standardizing the length of these clips, and working with online video ad networks such as Brightroll to create more relevant features, companies can increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. “As traditional media businesses like book publishing adapt to new models of distribution, online video will continue to play an important role, not just as content, but as a tool for extending the reach of visual messages now provided by television. As for the broadcast media companies themselves, online video represents an opportunity to partner, and not compete, with the web services companies that provide this service” (Lewis). I believe that this idea of adaptation is important if we are to be successful in the future that will be brought on by new technology. We must stay current, but focused and knowledgeable of our past. http://mashable.com/2009/07/31/traditional-media-online-video/ -Susanne Makosky

Paper or Pixels?

When researching traditional media (online, ironically) I found several sources that predicted the downfall of traditional mass media. One source stated that the New York Times, considered one of the best newspapers across America, would eventually go out of “print”. Now, this doesn’t mean that they’re becoming less relevant, they’re just changing their tactics. Most newspapers have a website and soon it will be all that they have. Newspapers are seeing the trends and the fact that almost everyone has a computer these days. The same goes for books, cd’s, movies, television, etc. While this is true, it’s also true that there are people like myself who would prefer to hold a newspaper or a book rather than exhaust one’s eyes staring at the screen of a computer, cellphone, Kindle or Nook. We must remember that it was originally thought that radio, and then television would be the end of newspapers and all the while they’ve continued to thrive. I do however; think their time may be coming to a close. There will always be exceptions and people that want to maintain traditional media, but there will be just as many who are eager to move forward: their kindles tucked beneath their arms as they enter a bathroom stall or coffee shop. -Susanne Makosky http://mashable.com/2010/09/08/nytimes-print/

Yo vs. Hello

While today’s interactions are usually brief and quick, I don’t believe that etiquette is ever antiquated (except for maybe bowing to greet anyone who isn’t royalty). It’s one thing to say in an a text message to someone “Yo, where you at?” but when speaking to someone in person, things will just be much better if one uses proper grammar and greetings to get their message across. Now, I’m not saying that slang isn’t a valid form of communication to the people that use it, but if one’s goal is to be perceived as professional and worth the time that someone takes to talk to them, then they must use proper etiquette. Regardless of the way we communicate on a daily basis, there will always be job interviews and meetings and professional situations where presentation and proper speech coupled with alacrity is important. I don’t believe that technology should affect our etiquette, but when you go online it is obvious that it has. Most people would hesitate to say out loud the things that they write on message boards, Facebook, etc. This shows us that people still focus on how they are in real life, but when people become lax in their manners online and through electronic communication it will inevitably lead them to do the same in person. -Susanne Makosky

Big Brother Google

After reading David Strietfeld’s article from the New York Times entitled, “Data Harvesting at Google Not a Rogue Act, Report Finds” I found myself becoming increasingly paranoid and angry about technology and the internet. These days, one hears a constant stream of news reports about companies using/selling the personal information they receive from internet users to make money, collect data, etc. This case of Google, however came as a surprise to me. Google really is the leading search engine service online and makes about $10.65 Billion in revenue per year, so there shouldn’t be a reason for them to be harvesting information from unsuspecting users. The problem with the harvesting scheme at Google is that it was covered up and a long-maintained lie about it being the “work of a rogue engineer” has since been disproved. It was discovered that Google knew about it all along and knew that the data being collected was of a personal nature. While I can see the data being useful to create programs and make Google itself a better search engine, I cannot rationalize theft of personal information. There are some who may say, “Well, if you want privacy, don’t use the internet.” but it’s really not that simple. The world we live in requires knowledge of how to use a computer. Between email, social networking and online shopping, one must have at least a basic understanding and because of that, the Internet is really inextricable from our lives. We can only hope that policy and morality will help regulate what is being taken from us as we click, search and communicate over the web. -Susanne Makosky http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/technology/google-engineer-told-others-of-data-collection-fcc-report-reveals.html?_r=1&ref=technology